


Look Before You Leap

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Dubious Consent, F/F, I'm adding tags and characters as I go, Kind of slow build, M/M, Non-Human Genitalia, Snakes, nagas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-03-26 10:36:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3847729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Look before you leap, for snakes among sweet flowers do creep.</p><p>Ray ventures into an ancient temple in his home, and is unprepared for what he finds.</p><p>DISCONTINUED</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me in a dream and I've been working on it on and off for about a week or more. I have more lined up, but the chapter isn't finished so hopefully I'll be able to get it out tomorrow. This fic starts out slow, but I promise you there will be lots of kinky stuff to come!
> 
> In other news, I have a tumblr where you can bug me now. My main blog is flashofobsession.tumblr.com, and my secondary, fic blog is inconsistentlyficcy.tumblr.com.

On the edge of town, there was a temple. It was vast - larger even than the mandira that managed regional projects, collecting donations from its devotees. The temple was overgrown with vines, and snakes seemed to flock to it in droves, only coming out to feed on the rats and mice that inhabited the nooks and crannies of the sun dried brick houses. Occasionally, chickens would go missing from the farms near the temple, but their disappearances were passed off as work of dholes, even after one of the local farmers claimed he’d seen a viper the size of a man; after all, what snake grew to be that big?

 

Ray certainly didn’t believe the rumors. Snakes may have been dangerous, but the young man found them interesting. The way their jaws unhinged fascinated him, and when he was younger he’d spent hours trying to catch a mouse so that he could feed it to one of the large cobras that he’d found slithering around his father’s rice farm. The snake hadn’t even tried to bite him; it had simply devoured the rodent and slithered off.

 

As young as he was, of course, Ray had expected a little bit more than that. He’d toyed with fantasies of the large naja curling up around his arm and whispering its secrets into his ear in the secret language of animals. Back then, he’d known little of Shiva besides the fact that the god was associated with cobras, and he’d hoped perhaps that he’d be favored. But Shiva had not deigned to interfere in his life, and instead of facing off with bullies in the town square with a snake coiled around his neck, Ray found himself repeatedly pushed into the dirt.

 

That hardly did anything to curb his fascination with serpents, however. In fact, after watching that first cobra open its maw and swallow his offering whole, Ray became even more engrossed by the animals. When he wasn’t helping his father on the farm or fetching something from the market, he was out in the long grass searching for snakes. He’d find holes in the ground and wait by them, lying on his stomach and watching for hours until, sometimes, a serpent would exit or return to its den. Just these glimpses were enough to satisfy him, and as he got older and his free time grew shorter, he found himself longing for the days when he had time to search for the reptiles.

 

But, as fate and the brains of young, foolish boys would have it; he would not have to content himself with the cobra charmers in the market for much longer.

 

oOo

 

“Come on, Tina, it’ll be fun!” Ray repeated for the dozenth time, adjusting the knot keeping his dhoti in place with a pout.

 

“Going into the temple? Fun?” his best friend scoffed, also for the dozenth time, “Yeah, I don’t think so, Ray. You know it’s practically sacrilege to go in there, right?”

 

“They aren’t our gods,” Ray pointed out, making a sweeping motion towards the temple that was peaking out over the tops of the trees. “They’re the ancient gods of whoever was here before us. I’m not worshipping them, I’m just interested in what it looks like on the inside!"

  

“And you like snakes,” Tina added, leveling him with a glare and pulling her sari more tightly around her. Ray had to stop himself from noticing the way the garment hugged her curves. Tina was beautiful and they were both of age; it was only the fact that his family was too poor to offer the respectful gift of a cow and a bull to hers that had stopped his father from forcing them to marry already. If it wasn’t for the fact that Ray considered the girl more of a friend than a lover, he might have already run off with her. As it was, his lustful flesh was doing the thinking for him most nights, and more often than not he found himself with a sticky hand, wondering what it was like to be in love.

 

“And I like snakes,” Ray admitted bashfully. “Tina, the whole outside wall is covered in carvings of them! I just want to look inside and see if there’s more.” 

 

“And Aaron dared you to, “ Tina said pointedly. “Look, Ray, I’m not going inside that place for some stupid bet, okay? If you get lost in there, I’ll mourn you, but I’d rather not die with you. You know, because I’m a smart person.”

 

“Fine then,” Ray sighed, crossing his arms over his bare chest, “I’ll go myself.”

 

oOo

 

That was how Ray found himself standing outside the overgrown entrance to the temple with Aaron and Chris hot on his heels.

 

“I can’t believe you’re doing this, snake boy,” the former said. He would have sounded impressed if it hadn’t been for the mocking lilt to his tone. “Gods, you must either have a death wish or you’re just plain stupid.”  
  
“Probably stupid,” Chris, who was, for lack of a better term, Aaron’s lackey, scoffed. “Everyone knows that going into the temple is a surefire way to become an Shudra in the next life.”

 

“Oh, go fuck yourself, you casteless prick,” Ray scoffed. While they were all technically in the Vaishya caste, Chris’s father was rumored to be an Untouchable – a person so low in the social hierarchy that they didn’t even have a caste. They did the jobs even Shudras, members of the lowest caste whose job was serving the rest of the castes, found disgusting. That generally meant working with death, rotting meat, and bodily fluids. They weren’t allowed to interact with other castes or use the public facilities, but there were still some cases in which someone would accidentally bump into an Untouchable and talk to them without realizing their status. Apparently Chris’s father and mother had met at the well when the man was sneaking clean water for his family and had fallen in love. They’d sworn by the gods to love and cherish one another and made love under the stars before Chris’s mother had realized her mistake, and by then she was pregnant.

 

Chris flushed scarlet with rage, and it was only Aaron’s hand on his shoulder that stopped him from lunging at Ray. “You son of a bitch. At least I don’t pleasure myself to the thought of serpents.”

 

Ray dug his nails into his palms and grit his teeth to keep himself from returning the insult. He wasn’t sure how that particular rumor got started, but ever since he was fourteen people seemed to be convinced that he stuck his cock in snake dens and stroked himself off to thoughts of scaled, slithering bodies. “Go back to scooping shit, you untouchable fuck,” he shot back.

 

“Why you little-”

 

“Coward.” Aaron cut Chris off, folding his arms over his bare chest with a smirk. “He’d rather trade insults than go inside the temple, I bet.”

 

It was an obvious deflection but Chris, the dimwit, didn’t seem to notice. Ray sighed. He’d gotten into enough fights in his eighteen years on the Earth; he didn’t need to get into any more. “Fine, but you better buy me that roasted chicken when I get back or I’ll go back in there, find a cobra, and put it down your dhoti,” he threatened, sounding more confident than he felt. He squared his shoulders and turned, taking a couple steps towards the vine-covered entrance of the temple.

 

“Oh my gods,” he heard Chris whisper to Aaron, “He’s actually gonna do it. Do you think-” The rest of his sentence was muffled, but Ray could guess it was something along the lines of “Do you think he’ll come back?” He would have been flattered that Chris seemed so concerned for his safety, but he was pretty sure that the other man just didn’t want to dish out his share of the kushans for the chicken when Ray came back.

 

The dark-haired boy ducked under a low-hanging branch of the tree that had managed to grow through the stones of the temple steps and surveyed the wall of vines that blocked of the temple entrance. The way they grew and twined together was almost eerie; it was if the plants were forming a blockade to prevent any outsiders from venturing inside.

 

Ray squared his shoulders and took a few steps forwards to inspect the barrier, searching for gaps in the thorny barricade. Surely the snakes that seemed to flock to the temple had to get in somehow? He bent down and there – lo and behold was a gap in the vines, just big enough for him to squeeze through if he crawled on his hands and knees.

 

Ray crouched down and got onto his stomach, wiggling forwards so that he could squirm his way through the opening. Thorns pricked his bare skin and the thin cotton of his dhoti wasn’t enough to protect his legs form the briers. By the time he’d made his way through the blockade of vine, there were dozens of pricks decorating his skin, welling up with crimson blood that stained the off-white material of his dhoti.

 

When he looked up from where he’d been staring at the dirty stone floor, however, Ray’s pain was immediately forgotten and he gasped. “By the gods…”

 

The temple was beautiful. The granite flooring was blanketed here and there by soft layers of moss and vines. The vines were of a different breed than those that formed the barrier that blocked the temple entrance. Green berries grew in clusters on the delicate stems and Ray was tempted to reach out and pluck the plump fruit. He would have, too, if a small voice in the back of his mind hand been whispering about the gods and temptation.

 

The domed roof of the temple was held up by dozens of ornate columns, each of which was delicately carved. Ray got up off of the floor to take a closer look, approaching the granite pillars cautiously. The stonework was expert; better than he’d ever seen, even in the mandira, and the dark-haired boy ran his fingertips over the carvings in awe.

 

They were snakes - beautiful, detailed snakes. Each scale had been carved out in painstaking detail. They were warm, too, as if heated by the sun though only slivers of light made their way into the temple through cracks and small openings in the walls.

 

Ray knew that he should have felt uneasy (After all, what kind of force could heat granite without so much as a flame?), but instead he felt entranced. The corridor stretching out before him seemed to beckon, and the dark-haired boy took a few steps forwards before he remembered himself.

 

“Shiva protect me,” Ray murmured, stepping back in surprise. What was he doing? He’d planned to explore the temple a little, sure, but now he was having second thoughts. The corridor was too enticing; it was if a spell had been laid over the building to coerce trespassers deep into its bowels.

 

Ray turned around, determined not to give in to temptation, but Aaron’s words came back to him: “ _Coward.”_

 

The dark-haired boy squared his shoulders. “Like hell I am,” he muttered, and turned away from the entrance, taking a few steps forwards towards his fate.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Ray was lost. The temple was full of twists and turns and side passages, and the dark-haired boy was no longer sure which one of the archways led to the entrance. He wished he’d thought to bring a ball of twine or something to mark his way, but he hadn’t thought the temple would be so _vast_. Regardless, it was too late now, and Ray found himself panicking as he chose random turn after random turn and seemed to only make his way deeper into the temple. 

It was terrifying. There was nothing he could do, it seemed, but keep marching forwards – or backwards, as the case may have been – until he was utterly turned around.

“Shit,” Ray muttered. He never should have let Aaron talk him into this. Still, he thought, running one hand over a beautiful, carved pillar, it was almost worth dying in here to get a look at the carvings inside. As he’d walked deeper and deeper into the temple, the artwork had gotten more and more intricate, and slowly the snakes on the pillars had begun to take on human form. Their eyes seemed to get brighter, their bodies less undulating, and a few even had hair growing on their carved, scaly heads. Ray found it utterly fascinating.

He paused in front of a set of large double doors, squinting through the shade. There was little light in this part of the temple, but the dark-haired boy could vaguely make out the magnificent carving that spanned both doors.

It was a snake – a snake with a woman’s torso that shifted into a long, scaled tail at her waist. Her carved breasts were bare, and there was a fierceness about her posture that had nothing to do with the curved sword she was holding.

Ray couldn’t hold in his gasp. She was beautiful, even in the dim lighting. Her edges were worn by time, and the minimalistic paint that colored her eyes was faded and chipped so that the snakelike slit of her pupils stood out eerily.

The boy drank in the sight of her, reaching up to touch the delicately carved scales. They were warm. More than warm. Ray had to pull back his hand after a few seconds because he couldn’t stand the heat, and he stared at the carved woman in awe.

“What kind of magic is this?” he murmured, stroking the thumb of his right hand over the warm palm of his left. There was no reason for the carving to be putting off such heat. In the darkness of this part of the temple, it shouldn’t have even been sun-warmed.

Ray shivered. He needed to turn back. He was even deeper into the temple than he’d thought. Yet, he stood, staring at the gorgeous snake-woman that seemed to be calling him in closer. Almost in a trance, he grasped the ornate handles of the double doors and pushed in.

The doors creaked open and the sight that greeted him was magnificent. The room was vast and vine-covered, but the plants seemed to avoid the carvings on the walls. The engraved stone depicted similar images to the one on the door: men and woman with the lower bodies of snakes, holding swords or pitchers or sickles. Their tails seemed to twine together to create a pattern Ray that found almost dizzying to follow. The women’s torsos were all bare, as were the men’s, and each of them seemed to be a different type of snake. The dark-haired boy could spot the striped patterns and flat tails of kraits, the large blotches that decorated the backs of pythons, the checkered pattern of kukri snakes, and even a man with the flared hood of a cobra.

The room looked to be a public bath, judging by the steaming pools of water that must have been fed by an underground hot spring. They appeared to be lined with baked bricks, and the bath in the center of the room had an elegant lip around it.

What caught Ray’s eye more than anything else, however, were the women. There were three of them, and they were bathing in the center pool.

One of them had long hair the deep red color of leaves post-monsoon season. The vibrant locks stretched straight down her back, ending around her bare shoulder blades. Her back was turned to Ray, but the boy could tell that she was nude – at least from the waist up; her other half was masked by the murky water.

The second woman had hair shorter than Ray had ever seen on any woman in his village before. It was a dark, deep black and only reached her shoulders. She had a soft, rounded face and was gazing shyly at the first woman, reaching her hand out to run it over the red-haired beauty’s plump curves. Ray stared unabashedly at the bare, porcelain breasts before him, drinking in the sight of the woman’s pert, pink nipples.

The last woman, who was lounging against the edge of the bath, moved, and for a moment Ray was afraid she had seen him – or perhaps had heard the door open, though it had been almost silent. But it turned out she was merely shifting in place, and Ray relaxed. The woman was as beautiful as her companions, her hair a bright, almost unnatural shade of red that complemented the first woman’s deep autumn color perfectly. It fell in damp waves over her breasts, doing little to hide her dusky pink nipples, and Ray watched in awe as she ran a hand down to squeeze one breast. The hand traveled lower, beneath the water, but Ray could guess from the movement of her arm that she was pleasuring herself to the sight of the other two women, who had moved closer to each other when he wasn’t looking.

The curvaceous redhead was stroking the dark haired woman’s face, and Ray could see the lustful blush that tinged both women’s cheeks even at a distance. The redhead leaned in and suddenly they were kissing, their lips locked together. Ray gaped. He’d never seen two women do anything like _that_ before. 

The dark-haired boy took a few steps forwards, his eyes locked on the sight before him. It was then, of course, that one of his bare feet slid on the tile. With a startled cry, he went tumbled backwards, landing hard on his ass.

The woman with the bright red hair turned to face the noise, and her companions’ heads followed suit. Ray blanched. He’d been caught. Caught staring at naked women in an abandoned heathen temple. The gods were sure to punish him for this.

It was the hiss that roused the dark-haired boy out of his shame-filled thoughts. The woman with the auburn hair had her lips drawn back in a snarl and she was _hissing_ at him. The sound was distinctly snakelike, and Ray’s eyes widened as the other two women took up the sound. He scrambled backwards as best he could, but it was too late. The redheaded woman seemed to glide as she moved out of the bath, and, inch-by-inch, the water fell away from her. Ray gaped. 

The woman was a she-snake - a decidedly more realistic version of the carvings on the walls of the room. Her lower body was that of a yellow-lipped sea krait, the ones Ray had seen only rarely when they wandered too far from their watery homes. Her long tail was interspersed with black stripes that contrasted starkly with her bright hair. 

Ray sat there, frozen, as the she-snake slithered towards him, the pointed tip of her tail twitching back and forth as she moved closer, hissing all the while. The two other women followed her, and Ray’s eyes widened. They too had the tails of snakes; one resembled an ornate reef snake while the other appeared to be a beaked sea snake judging by the light gray color of her flat-tipped tail.

It was then that Ray remembered the stories his mother told him when he was child – tales that had been lost in the recesses of his memory until now. She’d told him fables that she claimed had been passed down from ancient times. The plots were simplistic and cliché at best, but that wasn’t what had mattered to Ray. What had mattered was the cast of characters – the nagas. They were creatures with the torsos of humans and the lower halves of snakes, depicted as guardians and heroes. Beautiful princesses and great warriors alike populated his mother’s stories, but it had always been the nagas that had kept Ray’s attention solely on his ammi.

And they were real. 

The redheaded she-snake hissed again, and Ray was jolted out of his recollection. The naga was almost upon him, and the dark-haired boy scrambled backwards across the floor in a vain attempt to escape, letting out a hoarse yell even though he knew it was hopeless; the temple was so vast and maze-like he doubted anyone would hear him if they were standing right outside the entrance, much less if they were in town.

The boy scrambled to his feet and turned on his heel, running towards the heavy set of double doors he’d entered through. He tugged on the handles, but the doors wouldn’t budge. Frantically, Ray turned around again, only to come face-to-face with the krait-like woman, whose lips were drawn back from her teeth in a snarl. 

She had _fangs_.

Thinking quickly, Ray ducked around the she-snake. There was an archway on the other side of the room that led into a long hallway. If he could just get to it…

The dark-haired woman – the one with the tail of a beaked sea snake – cut him off before he could get more than a few feet. She had drawn herself up to her full height – which was considerable, as the tail that supported her weight was quite long – and she had her arms spread slightly, as if she was prepared to grab Ray as soon as he made another move. 

The dark-haired boy looked frantically behind him, but the red-haired she-snake was behind him, and the curvy naga with the auburn hair was to his left. Effectively, they made a triangle, cutting off any and all forms of escape that Ray might take.

The boy bit his lip, his eyes darting side to side as he tried to find and out, but there was none. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he was so scared he felt as if he was about to lose control of his bladder. His surprise at the existence of mythical creatures did nothing to quell his fear at the sight of the she-snakes’ fangs. The boy felt dizzy with terror. 

He took one, shaky step forward before his knees buckled under him and he fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have everyones' species picked out already, so here's what Lindsay, Arryn, and Meg look like.
> 
> Lindsay - Ornate Reef Sea Snake   
> http://www.indiansnakes.org/content/ornate-sea-snake   
> Arryn - Hook nosed sea snake   
> http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Hydrophis&species=schistosus   
> Meg - Yellow lipped sea krait   
> http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Laticauda&species=colubrina


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray wakes up tied to a dais in the middle of the temple. What's a boy to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to the anon who complimented this fic on my tumblr! You're the best; comments give me life, and if I knew who you were, I'd dedicate this chapter to you.
> 
> On a different note, these are the snakes that everybody is, complete with links to pictures and info!
> 
> Geoff - Jerdon’s Pit Viper   
> http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Protobothrops&species=jerdonii   
> Jack - Indian Rock Python   
> http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Python&species=molurus   
> Ryan - Indian Cobra  
> http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Naja&species=naja   
> Michael- Large Eyed False Cobra  
> http://indiansnakes.org/content/large-eyed-false-cobra   
> Gavin- Northern Viper   
> http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Vipera&species=berus

They were ancient. They’d lived at least a hundred years each, though it was hard to keep count anymore, especially when seasons passed without notice inside the temple.

 

They’d seen a civilization rise and fall, though they hardly considered it such. To them, civilizations were nothing more than groups of humans clustered together in putrid masses.

 

However, this did not stop them from exploiting the two-legs’ beliefs. They’d been demons, gods, and everything in between. They’d been worshipped and waited on, preyed upon and feared. They’d fought amongst themselves and lived in the lap of luxury.

 

But that was all a long time ago.

 

Now, they lived alone, trapped inside their ancient temple dwelling with little to do but eat, sleep, and bathe. Hibernation became less of a habit and more of an escape from the drudgery of everyday life. Even the snakes seemed to get bored of talking to them after awhile.

 

Then the boy came.

 

oOo

 

When Ray awoke, he found himself in binds.

 

He didn’t notice them at first; it felt more as if his wrists had been encased in soft leather than anything else. But when he tried to move his arms, he found that he couldn’t. Moreover, he couldn’t move his legs, either.

 

The dark-haired boy furrowed his brow in confusion, keeping his eyes closed for the time being. Where was he? Not at home, certainly; whatever he was lying on was much too soft to be his own, straw mattress.

 

Then the day’s events came rushing back to him, and Ray had to bite his lip to keep from screaming. No. Oh no. It had to have been a dream. He opened his eyes, eager to confirm the theory, but what he saw made his heart sink like a stone.

 

He was still in the temple; that much was obvious. He could see stone pillars that rose from floor to ceiling when he turned his head, each with elaborately carved snakes twisting around their columns. Other than those, the room was plain, however. There didn’t even seem to be any moss or much other greenery growing through the cracks in the floor or in the spaces between carvings like there had been in the bathes he’d first found himself in; the space was immaculate, save for the vines that crawled up the walls and over parts of the floor.

 

If Ray picked up his head, he could see a set of double doors across from him, ornate and patterned with a mass of twisting snakes – like what one saw in a nest after serpents had just hatched.

 

What really interested him, though, was the view he got when he arched his neck, tipping his head backwards. There were four archways behind him. Each had a different symbol carved over it. They looked like Hindi script, yet if Ray had to guess, he’d say they were much older – ancient, perhaps.

 

The boy shivered, tugging at his bonds. They were made out of vines – soft, leafless ones that curled around his wrists and ankles, and if Ray twisted, he could see that they disappeared below the raised dais he was on and into the floor. He could also see what he was laying on – a long cushion, worn looking and colored a faded indigo. It was soft enough that Ray guessed it was filled with cotton rather than straw, a pleasure only afforded to the upper castes. What was such a luxury doing in an ancient temple?

 

Perhaps, the boy thought, biting his lips and struggling against the vines that held him in place, someone was living here – someone besides the she-snakes he’d seen – and they had brought the cushion for him. Perhaps a member of one of the upper castes lived in the temple and was punishing him for trespassing… Yes, that was possible. In fact, Ray thought, hoping against hope, perhaps the nagas he’d seen weren’t real at all, but simply a product of some sort of illusory magic that the gods had blessed the Brahmin that lived here with.

 

It only took a few minutes for Ray to convince himself of the truth of this story, he so desperately wanted to believe it was true. It took him another five to work up the courage to speak, but he figured that it was better to call out than lay here forever. “Hello?” he called nervously, quiet at first, then louder. “Um, hello? Is anyone there?” His voice echoed across the room and down the passages before reverberating back to him. Ray winced. Well, someone was sure to have heard him.

 

Indeed, after a few moments there was a shuffling noise from one of the passageways, and Ray craned his neck back to look for the source. The first thing the boy saw was a bare chest and a head of sandy blond hair as a man came out of the darkness of the leftmost passage and into the sunlight illuminating the room. Ray almost collapsed with relief, opening his mouth to thank the stranger for answering his call for help, but he stopped short when the man kept coming. Inch by inch, in what seemed to be slow motion, the rest of the stranger’s body was revealed. He had a tail. A long, brown snake’s tail, to be exact, with a dark pattern of interconnecting diamonds running from his waist to the tip of his tail. A naga.

 

Ray struggled against his bonds, wide eyed as he tried to pull away from the rapidly encroaching snake of a man. “No! No, stop! Don’t hurt me!” He would have been ashamed of how afraid he sounded if he hadn’t been about to lose control of his bowels.

 

The man stopped in his tracks – or rather, track, given that he only had one limb to make them with – and cocked his head to the side in a gesture that was decidedly too bird-like for a snake. He hissed something, a sound no doubt meant to be words, but it only made Ray struggle harder; the man had _fangs_.

 

The snake opened his mouth to speak again, and this time the words that came out were in Hindi. “Calm down,” he said, his voice oddly lilting, “Not going to hurt you now.”

 

“Yeah?” Ray scoffed, “And what about later?”

 

This question seemed to confuse the man, and he cocked his head to the side again. “Wait. I will get others.”

 

“Like I have a choice,” Ray grumbled, glaring at the snake. He was trapped, no bones about it. Even his fear was starting fade, he realized; shock was taking its place. Still, there was a small voice in the back of his mind whispering, _They’re real, they’re real. Run you, idiot. They’ll devour you whole._

 

The man seemed to find his comment amusing, for he smirked, slithering forwards to lean on the dais that Ray was bound to. “You don’t,” he murmured in that strange accent, grinning wide enough to bare his fangs.

 

Ray shivered and bit his lip, determined not to cry as the man hissed, a loud sound that reverberated throughout the room and down the passageways. After a moment, something else took up the sound, then another. Soon the room was filled with the sound of the snakes’ calls and the sound of scales scraping on stone. They were coming.

 

oOo

 

Geoff was roused from his slumber by the sound of a hiss. It was not a call to arms, but more of a summoning. He could tell the voice was Gavin by the way the British snake's hiss lilted; the boy was awake.

 

The females had brought the two-leg to them, waking the breeders from various states of hibernation. A gift, Meg had said with a smirk as she’d tied the man to the dais in the center of the room. “After all, you’ve been complaining that you don’t have anyone to fuck now that we have Arryn.” The youngest she-snake was constantly being coddled by the other two, as fertile as she was; Lindsay and Meg wouldn’t allow the boys to go near their newly-blossomed sister for fear that she’d catch and they’d have a clutch of eggs on their hands.

 

Geoff slowly uncoiled from his bed of vines and soft, worn cushions, stretching his tattooed arms above his head. He was looking forwards to having someone to breed again, now that Lindsay and Meg, and his former mate, Griffon, had had their share of young. All of the breeders were pent up these days, and they tended to do nothing but eat, sleep, and try to sate each other’s appetites with their mouths and hands. It worked, for awhile, but there was nothing compared to the hot clutch of a she-snake’s body, except, perhaps, that of a human’s.

 

Geoff slithered towards the entrance to his personal chambers, moving down the dark hallway and into the light of the main room, his pupils slitting as the light hit them. None of the other men were there yet, save Gavin, and Geoff had to hiss to get the other man’s attention as he was far too wrapped up in staring at the boy on the dais with a smirk on his face.

 

When Gavin turned, there was a light in his eyes that Geoff had never seen before. “Look, Geoff. He’s so _cute_. Look at his little feet!” This was all said in the secret language of snakes, and the boy flinched at the sound of the hissing, yanking at the magical vines that bound his wrists and ankles.

 

“You’re scaring him,” Geoff pointed out with a grin, crossing his arms over his chest and quirking and eyebrow.

 

“I know,” Gavin smirked, flicking his tail in amusement, “I bet he’s never seen anything like us before… He must be bloody terrified.”

 

“Just like you were when you first came here?” Geoff asked, laughing when the other snake glared and gave him a two-finger salute. “What, is Gavvy-Wavvy ashamed? You were only a few decades old, man. I’m still surprised you managed to escape from that British trader who captured you in England.” The man had tried to sell Gavin to the locals, but the snake had escaped one night through the bars of his cage and made his way to the temple. Michael, their second youngest, had found him while exploring and brought him home. To this day, they remained close friends, and Gavin shared Michael’s chambers.

 

“Well, I guess I’m just that bloody talented,” the viper sniffed, flashing his fangs at Geoff in a half-hearted attempt of a threat.

 

The man laughed, turning his attention back to the boy on the dais and speaking to him directly, in Hindi this time. “What’s your name, boy?”

 

“R-Ray,” the human stammered out automatically, then scowled; it was obvious that he hadn’t meant to divulge any information to the snakes.

 

Geoff smirked and slithered closer, stroking the boy’s cheek. The two-leg flinched, “Cute. ‘Ray’; I like that. Do you know what we are, Ray?”

 

“Nagas,” the boy glowered, obviously not pleased with Geoff’s condescending attitude. “I’ve heard the stories, snake. I’m not dim.” He was hiding his fear rather well, Geoff noted, but if you looked closely, you could see the way his lower lip was trembling with the effort not to burst into tears.

 

“You’re one of the few who know our name,” came another voice from one of the passageways – Ryan. “Here I’d thought all traces of us had been lost to time, but apparently some still remain.” The cobra slithered into view, and Geoff almost laughed at the way Ray flinched. He supposed the man was an intimidating sight, especially with his hood flared out as it was now.

 

Michael came gliding in after Ryan, yawning and stretching his arms. He had a few tattoos, though not as many as Geoff, but they stood out starkly against the pale, freckled skin of his torso. Obviously, the false-cobra had been sharing Ryan’s chambers, and Geoff could see traces of slick around his slit; they’d been fooling around.

 

“Who’s the two-leg?” Michael asked, raising an eyebrow as he gazed imperiously down at Ray. He made sure to speak in Hindi so that the boy could understand when he smirked and said, “We eating him?”

 

Ray yelped and struggled against his bonds, pulling violently at the vines, though they didn’t budge an inch. “No! No!” He cried out, and Geoff would have laughed if there hadn’t been so much real fear in the boy’s eyes.

 

“No, we aren’t eating him,” the older man rolled his eyes as Jack came slithering into the room silently. It always amazed Geoff how quiet the python could be despite his bulk.

 

“It’d be shame to eat such a pretty little morsel,” Ryan practically purred, in the language of snakes this time. “I don’t think he has a clue what we want with him…”

 

Michael frowned. “I don’t want to breed a human bitch, Rye. What’s wrong with what we have now?”

 

“You’ve never had a human,” Jack spoke up, gazing down at the boy curiously. The fact that he couldn’t understand them seemed to put the two-leg on edge, and he looked to be fighting the urge to whimper. “They’re… Unique.”

 

“Who gets first go, then?” Gavin asked, “Me n’ Michael haven’t bred a human, so I think it should be us.”

 

“That’s the exact reason you _shouldn’t_ be first,” Geoff rolled his eyes, “Humans are fragile. Besides, we aren’t fucking him yet, don’t be dense. We have to earn his trust first. We have to make him want it.”

 

“Why?” Michael scoffed, “What, is it better that way or some shit?”

 

“Yes,” Ryan said coolly. “Much better. You’ve never seen a human writhing in pleasure. They’re much more… Pliant that way.”

 

“Like hell,” Michael muttered, but he didn’t protest, despite the look Gavin threw his way.

 

Geoff turned his attention back to the boy tied to the dais, speaking to him in Hindi. “I’m sorry it turned out this way, Ray… You never should have come here.” He put on his best sympathetic expression; it wasn’t very hard. He really did feel sorry for the boy; he’d never see his friends or family again.

 

“Please,” the boy whimpered, “Let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone about you; just let me go!”

 

“I can’t do that,” Geoff sighed, reaching forwards to brush a stray strand of hair off of Ray’s forehead. The boy flinched. “You know about us, now. We can’t take that risk. I promise we’ll treat you well, though… Here, Gavin.” The snake perked up, “Get Ray some water and some berries – some Indian ginseng to help him sleep.”

 

Gavin nodded and slithered off, ignoring the way Ray vehemently shook his head and strained against the vines binding his wrists. “No, please!” Jack shook his head and followed the viper; he couldn’t bear to see Ray in such distress; he’d always had a big heart, and even humans deserved some sympathy.

 

“Go,” Geoff told Ryan and Michael, “I’ll take care of him. You two get back to what you were doing.” He smirked, and Michael rolled his eyes. The two hooded snakes glided off together, down the hall that lead to Ryan’s chamber. Then it was just Geoff and Ray in the room, and the boy gulped.

 

Geoff suppressed a grin. He was going to have fun with this kid.


End file.
